


Flavor Combinations and Other Noteworthy Disasters

by Dokuhan



Category: THE iDOLM@STER
Genre: Awkwardness, Crushes, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dokuhan/pseuds/Dokuhan
Summary: No man had ever made his heart flutter as much a Kashiwagi Tsubasa.Hideo has a crush and it's absolutely ruining his life.Hideo Ship Week 2020 Day 1!!
Relationships: Akuno Hideo/Kashiwagi Tsubasa
Kudos: 5





	Flavor Combinations and Other Noteworthy Disasters

Hideo had had plenty of crushes before. It was only natural, after all. He even had a boyfriend for a few solid weeks in high school before studying for university exams pulled them apart. So, this wasn’t supposed to be weird for him.

But no man had ever made his heart flutter as much as Kashiwagi Tsubasa.

He wasn’t really sure when or how it had started. They didn’t work together often and almost never saw each other outside of that. And yet, Hideo had woken up one morning with a pounding in his chest and a squirmy feeling under his skin as he realized, “Oh wow…I like him a lot.”

In a number of other circumstances it would have been fine. Having a crush was nice, exhilarating in a way. Even if he didn’t plan on pursuing it, he could always use the boost of serotonin in his life. Unfortunately, this was not one of those ideal situations. Instead his stupid, nonsense crush just made things awkward. Especially when Producer announced an uptick in requests for joint DRAMATIC STARS/FRAME events, which meant seeing Tsubasa exponentially more often.

“Your fanbases are totally different, but there’s a good overlap of women in their late 20’s. We’d be insane not to take advantage of that,” Producer had explained, all too oblivious to the fact that they were throwing Hideo’s life into a tailspin. “I’m going to start making a few arrangements.”

Group events had been a mixed bag. If Tsubasa had to address him directly he tripped over his words and probably pulled scarier faces than usual when he tried to play it off. Luckily Shingen and Ryu (who ere both _very_ aware of this predicament and found great glee in razzing him about it) could cover for him too. He almost considered himself lucky to have them as friends.

Almost.

An added benefit to being unit leader was that he was usually paired up with Teru if they had to do any individual work. He was more than okay with that, he and Teru had a great rapport. People liked to play up the “law and order” angle between them, which made them an entertaining match up. Plus, it cut down the number of chances Hideo had to make an ass of himself.

But apparently, Shingen had decided that Hideo was due for some pain and suffering, and took him aside one afternoon.

“Hey, you know that promotion we’re doing for that grocery store next week?” He asked, a large grin spreading across his face. “You know, the foreign one in Shibuya?”

“Yeah…? I was at that meeting too.” They were scheduled to film a few short videos trying out various products, which would be spread out over a few TV spots and in-store. Aside from the ones he was going to do with Ryu and Shingen, he and Teru were going to show off some ready-made meals.

“Well, I talked to Producer and then I asked Teru…” His grin grew wider and Hideo started to get a bad feeling in his gut. “You said you don’t cook much and I figured you’d enjoy my assignment more…”

“Shingen, please tell me you didn’t—”

“I want the best man spot at the wedding, okay? No matter how much Ryu begs.”

“…you have a minute to start running before I murder you.”

Shingen laughed, putting his arm around Hideo’s shoulders. “You guys better start budgeting for the wedding now, I’m sure catering is gonna be a fortune. You’re doing a dessert bar, right? I’m thinking blue and green for your colors.”

“You really should take advantage of your head start…”

“It’s going to work out just fine! You’ll thank me later!”

“Thirty seconds…”

“C-come on, Hideo. It’s not that serious…”

“Twenty-five…”

“I’m just trying to help! You weren’t going to do anything about it.” Still, Shingen removed his arm and started speed walking down the hall.

“Twenty…”

“Seriously! Hideo!”

Hideo might have started sprinting a few seconds early. 

* * *

“I’m Akuno Hideo from 315 Productions’ FRAME.” Hideo bowed his head, hoping it would hide how red his face was. “I look forward to working with you all again today.”

Familiar faces greeted him back, along with a few new ones. He had been at the studio earlier that week to film his segments with Shingen and Ryu. It gave him a chance to make a decent impression, one that would probably be completely decimated by his incoming awkwardness.

“I’m Kashiwagi Tsubasa, also from 315 Productions. My unit is DRAMATIC STARS,” Tsubasa chirped next to him, sending Hideo’s heart into a fluttering frenzy. “Today is my first time here and I look forward to working with all of you.”

Hideo felt his face burn harder as he kept his head down. He had absolutely no idea how he was going to keep his wits about him when the two of them had to be so close all day. He somehow managed to school his expression into something he hoped was somewhat professional.

The project director stepped in from there, explaining how the day was going to proceed. “Right, so…” he started, looking over the booklet in his hands. “The focus today is desserts and snack foods. We’re going to start with some more savory snacks, then move onto ice cream, and then artisanal fudge. After lunch we’ll do healthy snacks.” He wrinkled his nose. “That sounds like a sugar rush waiting to happen, I could rearrange things if you’d like.”

Tsubasa shook his head, “I think we’ll be alright. We can handle it,” he grinned directly at him, “Right, Hideo?”

In an instant, Hideo felt his heart rate spike and then immediately slow down. His words caught in his throat. “I can handle it,” he finally managed, and cringed when his voice cracked. He coughed and tried to start again, with an attempt to twist his face back into idol-mode. “It doesn’t sound that difficult.”

For a moment, an upset look crossed Tsubasa’s face. But it was gone before Hideo could say anything, replaced with the usual smile. “Let’s do our best!”

The first round of snacks had been…underwhelming, to say the least. A lot of the chips were too salty and some snacks barely tasted like the thing they were advertising themselves as at all. With anyone else, Hideo could have commented between takes – but Tsubasa seemed to be enjoying them, and he didn’t want to do anything else to spoil the mood. He had already made things worse when he nearly spit out a handful of cheese puffs that tasted more like well worn sneakers than anything he would actively want to eat.

Ice cream had been an improvement, because it was hard to mess _that_ up with fancy ingredients. Plus, every bite seemed to make Tsubasa’s face light up like the sun. Hideo focused on each expression, committing them to memory because he knew there wouldn’t be any other opportunity. Every smile and satisfied noise sent shivers down Hideo’s spine. Would he make the same noise if Hideo leaned in to kiss him? He imagined it would taste like the red bean ice cream and chocolate cookie mixture he was going to town on, but there would also be something indescribable with it. A feature that only came with Tsubasa.

He wanted to know what that was.

In his distraction, Hideo accidentally bit down on the mango-and-cream bar a production assistant handed him. He groaned and scrunched his eyes together.

Tsubasa whispered to him, “Hideo, press your tongue to the roof of your mouth. It helps.”

Hideo did just that, letting the flat of his tongue warm the hard palate of his mouth. He silently chided himself for getting too caught up in his own feelings in the middle of work. At the rate he was going, he was going to single handedly ruin the entire shoot. That would do him a world of good. This wasn’t just his reputation on the line, but it would still affect him the most.

“Thanks…” he grumbled, feeling more than a little bit sorry for himself.

“Do you want to ask for a break?”

“No, let’s just keep going. Get this over with.”

“Oh…” Tsubasa frowned, and that just broke Hideo’s heart. He didn’t mean it _that_ way, but it probably did not sound good. “Right. Let’s keep going then.”

The ice cream tasted sour after that.

Once the mess from the second segment was cleaned up, the production assistants started putting things together for the third. They placed five plates on the table, each with a handful of small squares of fudge and a little placard with the main ingredient. The first thing Hideo noticed was that the placard wasn’t facing their direction.

“Okay, so…” the director clapped his hands and rubbed them together, grabbing their attention. “We’re going to try two things here. I’d like you guys to try to guess what the main ingredient is in each of these. After that we’re going to film you two speaking positively about the flavor. Then we’ll take lunch. Sound good?”

Even though they each sounded off their affirmation, Hideo still felt uneasy. His day just seemed to be getting worse and worse each time he opened his mouth and he was just ready for it to be over. Part of him wanted to ask if they could just skip to the last segment and end early, but the other part of him knew that would just put him in an even worse position.

The worst part of it was, he hadn’t gone in that day expecting anything to happen between them. He knew that the two of them getting together was a non-starter and despite Shingen’s best attempts, he also knew that work was always just work in the long run. His life would be significantly easier if he wasn’t such a hopeless sap and could let go of his random crush. Then maybe the two of them could at least be friendly.

“…deo…Hideo!” Tsubasa’s voice cut through his thoughts, snapping Hideo back into attention.

Admittedly, this initiated some kind of fight or flight response in him and he panicked. There was no other explanation for the events that were about to unfold. Without thinking, Hideo reached out towards one of the plates and grabbed the fudge, shoving it into his mouth. This turned out to be a horrible mistake, as an overwhelming spiciness filled the inside – tingling and burning at his tastebuds. He still didn’t understand why _that particular thing_ was his response, even when he looked back on it later, but hindsight was never actually 20/20.

He coughed and choked, but his mouth wouldn’t open to spit the fudge out and his throat closed up before he could properly swallow. He quickly resigned himself to the fact that this was how he was going to die and, wow, what a way to go! Next to the man he was hopelessly head over heels for and eating something that was supposed to be sweet. Nobody could have predicted that.

Tsubasa must have panicked too, because he immediately started hitting Hideo’s back. Probably trying to coax him like to spit it out a small child – older brother instinct and all that. Hideo had done the same for his younger sister and brother a few times.

When Hideo did manage to spit it out, his mouth was still burning – and his face felt like it was on fire from more than just the fudge. Someone handed him an ice cream bar from the other segment, in hopes that it would cool down his mouth. But really, it just made him feel worse.

“Well, it looks like we’re going to need more of the chili infused chocolate…” the director sighed, rubbing his neck.

“I’m very sorry,” Hideo apologized around the bar, absolutely mortified.

“Why don’t we take a break now? Give yourself a minute to cool down.”

Hideo nodded, pulling the ice cream away and rubbing his tongue along the inside of his mouth. He looked over to Tsubasa, planning on apologizing for messing up the segment. But his embarrassment won out when their eyes met and he pushed away from the table, bolting out of the studio as fast as his legs could carry him.

And that was how Hideo found himself sitting behind one of the couches in the green room, miserably trying to finish his half-melted ice cream. Hiding had been another stupid decision on his ever-growing list for that day, but he couldn’t bear the idea of facing anyone else. If he could at least avoid any kind of social interaction for the next hour, then maybe he could power through the rest of the shoot.

He laughed at himself. Like that was ever going to happen. Hideo crumbled up the wrapper, licking the last of the residue from his hand. So much for the intricate wedding plans Shingen had for them.

The door to the room opened and quickly shut, and Hideo hoped that meant whoever was looking for him had left. Unfortunately, as everything else that day had been going, this was not the case.

Tsubasa scooted next to him on the floor, crossing his legs out in front of him. He bit his lip, looking away before starting. “Are you okay?”

“My ego’s kind of bruised. I also messed up the shoot, so…”

“No one’s that mad about it. I think everyone needed a break anyway,” he shrugged.

“I doubt it.”

Tsubasa made a vague noise, tapping his fingers on the floor. He shifted his weight, before turning to face him with a frown. “Hideo, can we talk?” He didn’t wait before continuing, “I know you don’t like me but—”

Hideo whipped his head around. “Wait, what? Why would you think that?”

“I mean you’re always avoiding me and looking away when I try to talk to you. I just figured I did something to upset you.”

“No, of course not!”

“But what about when you do look at me? You look upset!”

“That’s just my face! Honest!”

“Hideo, you really don’t have to spare my feelings if—”

“I actually really like you a lot!” Hideo blurted out, words falling like a tidal wave. “I like you so much it drives me crazy. But I know that’s totally weird, because we’re both guys, and most people don’t like that. If I look at you, I feel like I’m going to lose it and say too much.” He covered his mouth. “I guess I kind of did that already.”

Tsubasa paused and it looked like the wheels were turning in his head. Slowly a pink blush trailed across his cheeks. “You like me? Like… _like_ me? Or just don’t dislike me?”

“ _Like_. The big kind.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah,” Hideo dropped his hand. “It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way. But I don’t hate you, okay? I’m just an awkward loser.”

The three seconds of silence felt like an eternity, before Tsubasa cleared his throat. “Is it, um, different? When you like another man?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t know since I don’t have anything else to compare it to.”

“Oh, uh…I was just wondering.” Tsubasa shifted again, moving closer. “Because this doesn’t really feel different…”

Hideo’s heart pounded in his ears. He wanted to ask what that meant, but his brain couldn’t make the words into something coherent. He swallowed hard, moving onto his knees so they were closer in height. “It doesn’t?”

“I don’t think so…” Tsubasa reached over, fingers brushing the lower half of Hideo’s jaw. “Can I…”

“Yeah!” Hideo cleared his throat and corrected himself, “I mean, it’s okay. I want to.”

Tsubasa leaned in, sighing when Hideo met him halfway so their lips could touch. It was a small peck, but enough to send a pleasant sensation through Hideo’s body. He leaned back in when Tsubasa pulled away, opening his mouth just enough for Tsubasa’s tongue to slip in. When they pulled apart again, Hideo needed a second to catch his breath.

“Still tastes like chili powder.”

Hideo groaned, “Is that really all you have to say?”

“No.” Tsubasa leaned in and pecked him again. “It tastes sweet too.”

**Author's Note:**

> This didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it at first - but I'm surprised more people don't ship them! I've seen one fanart and frankly, it needs more content.
> 
> Anyway - this is for the first day of Hideo Ship Week!! Please check it out on Twitter! 
> 
> Shout out to my OG, Chrissy, for beta-ing this so I could get it out in time.


End file.
